New Movie Investigates Near-Death Experiences

15 Replies, 872 Views

New Movie Investigates Near-Death Experiences

Quote:Are reports of consciousness after death believable? Moreover, are they scientifically credible? A new film from Angel Studies, After Death, investigates these questions by interviewing people in near-death situations. These subjects report encountering exquisite beauty, loved ones, and even the ability to see their physical bodies from a disembodied vantage point after death. Many doctors and neuroscientists are admitting that these testimonies are hard to dismiss through materialistic explanations. The movie is out today and offers a compelling revelation of the evidence for life after death. Take a moment to watch the trailer and consider seeing the movie in full:

'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'

- Bertrand Russell


[-] The following 5 users Like Sciborg_S_Patel's post:
  • Ninshub, Kamarling, LotusFlower, Raimo, nbtruthman
I just watched a YouTube trailer for this movie and I am so disappointed. So much so that I broke my own rule and left a comment below. Here's the comment:

Quote:Oh dear, here we go again. Firstly, I am in favour of these NDE stories being shared with the wider world. I believe these experiencers. I am in favour of research and debate. What depresses me is that yet again we have bible bashing evangelists trying to hijack the conversation and make it all about their narrow faith. I have not seen the movie itself and now I am put off from even bothering but I hope they are honest enough to show the interviews with people who tell us that the experience is not about religion. It is not about confirming the scriptures. No wonder this serious subject is dismissed as religious bunk by the skeptics.

If you scan through the other comments, more than 90% of them appear to be evangelical in tone and content. I hadn't realised that one of the experts, Jeffery Long, is also following a religious agenda (the great big print of Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" on the wall behind him is something of a give-away). Another claims to have studied thousands of NDEs and cross-referenced them with passages from the bible which all confirms the scriptures.

Actually, I say I watched the trailer but I had to give up on it after realising what the message is. I skipped most of the rest, just clicking on sections to confirm my observation.
I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension.
Freeman Dyson
(This post was last modified: 2023-11-10, 07:12 PM by Kamarling. Edited 1 time in total.)
[-] The following 7 users Like Kamarling's post:
  • tim, Silence, Obiwan, Ninshub, nbtruthman, Raimo, Typoz
(2023-11-10, 07:10 PM)Kamarling Wrote: I just watched a YouTube trailer for this movie and I am so disappointed. So much so that I broke my own rule and left a comment below. Here's the comment:


If you scan through the other comments, more than 90% of them appear to be evangelical in tone and content. I hadn't realised that one of the experts, Jeffery Long, is also following a religious agenda (the great big print of Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" on the wall behind him is something of a give-away). Another claims to have studied thousands of NDEs and cross-referenced them with passages from the bible which all confirms the scriptures.

Actually, I say I watched the trailer but I had to give up on it after realising what the message is. I skipped most of the rest, just clicking on sections to confirm my observation.

I can understand this view, and the feeling this will only make worse the barrier between STEM establishment and Survival research...but really it seems to me the atheist-materialists wouldn't like this film even if it talked about how NDErs often become spiritual but not religious and that Survival research challenges the tenets of many religions. We are dealing with people who genuinely think telling humanity they are biological robots on a choice-less road to oblivion will make the world a better place...in other words, people who have lost the plot and are not sane...

I'm agnostic as to the "God question", though I do tend to lean toward a Limited God concept..but I do think people anywhere coming to realize there is scientific work being done on Survival is a good thing, just as I also think people understanding that materialism is logical nonsense is important. I don't think we are going to stop the corruption/infection of materialist fundamentalism with just a scattershot of people who like to read about psychic powers and NDEs/CORTs/etc...

To quote Charles Foster, "Uncomfortable though it may be, then, our friends are the religious."

I will add that as a non-Christian having gone to a Christian college in the US, there is more diversity of thought in Christian communities than the media wants to show...
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'

- Bertrand Russell


(This post was last modified: 2023-11-10, 07:29 PM by Sciborg_S_Patel. Edited 4 times in total.)
[-] The following 4 users Like Sciborg_S_Patel's post:
  • tim, Larry, Raimo, Typoz
(2023-11-10, 07:23 PM)Sciborg_S_Patel Wrote: I can understand this view, and the feeling this will only make worse the barrier between STEM establishment and Survival research...but really it seems to me the atheist-materialists wouldn't like this film even if it talked about how NDErs often become spiritual but not religious and that Survival research challenges the tenets of many religions. We are dealing with people who genuinely think telling humanity they are biological robots on a choice-less road to oblivion will make the world a better place...in other words, people who have lost the plot and are not sane...

I'm agnostic as to the "God question", though I do tend to lean toward a Limited God concept..but I do think people anywhere coming to realize there is scientific work being done on Survival is a good thing, just as I also think people understanding that materialism is logical nonsense is important. I don't think we are going to stop the corruption/infection of materialist fundamentalism with just a scattershot of people who like to read about psychic powers and NDEs/CORTs/etc...

To quote Charles Foster, "Uncomfortable though it may be, then, our friends are the religious."

I will add that as a non-Christian having gone to a Christian college in the US, there is more diversity of thought in Christian communities than the media wants to show...

As you know, I am also agnostic on the God question. Well, let me be more precise because that might not be the right wording for me: I do have a concept of an omnipresent, creative consciousness which I term "God" for the sake of convenience but I do not place that concept in any religious framework, nor do I subscribe to any faith-based ideology.

I don't have animosity towards my religious friends nor my atheist friends and family. Mostly we talk about other stuff because both groups are entrenched in their respective ideological camps. But I do get antagonistic towards propaganda and I suspect (to the point of near certainty) that this movie is an evangelical (Angel Studios - come on) hijack endeavour.
I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension.
Freeman Dyson
[-] The following 6 users Like Kamarling's post:
  • tim, Obiwan, Larry, Typoz, Ninshub, Sciborg_S_Patel
(2023-11-10, 07:41 PM)Kamarling Wrote: I don't have animosity towards my religious friends nor my atheist friends and family. Mostly we talk about other stuff because both groups are entrenched in their respective ideological camps. But I do get antagonistic towards propaganda and I suspect (to the point of near certainty) that this movie is an evangelical (Angel Studios - come on) hijack endeavour.

The film studio may be trying to say NDEs confirm their particular religion, but just by entering the realm of scientific investigation it shifts the playing field.

Viewers who go home and research the NDE phenomenon on their own may ultimately become more akin to those of us who have found Survival seems to challenge religious orthodoxies. The Survival literature challenges notions such as people of the wrong religion going to Hell forever or people who are lower caste somehow deserving mistreatment because they committed evils in a past life.
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'

- Bertrand Russell


(This post was last modified: 2023-11-10, 08:02 PM by Sciborg_S_Patel. Edited 2 times in total.)
[-] The following 2 users Like Sciborg_S_Patel's post:
  • Obiwan, Typoz
(2023-11-10, 08:01 PM)Sciborg_S_Patel Wrote:  The Survival literature challenges notions such as people of the wrong religion going to Hell forever or people who are lower caste somehow deserving mistreatment because they committed evils in a past life.

Indeed, this is really germane to the point I am making. People who are, for example, traditional evangelicals tend to have Old Testament concepts of heaven and hell rather than the kind of non-judgemental spiritual dimension that NDE reports describe. So I am at a loss to see how the guy, John Burke, in this promotion video can claim that the biblical account is confirmed by NDEs.

See his summary at around 56 minutes ...

https://www.youtube.com/live/rpgTFVluop8...kBHEAZgbUj
I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension.
Freeman Dyson
[-] The following 3 users Like Kamarling's post:
  • tim, Obiwan, Sciborg_S_Patel
(2023-11-10, 10:04 PM)Kamarling Wrote: Indeed, this is really germane to the point I am making. People who are, for example, traditional evangelicals tend to have Old Testament concepts of heaven and hell rather than the kind of non-judgemental spiritual dimension that NDE reports describe. So I am at a loss to see how the guy, John Burke, in this promotion video can claim that the biblical account is confirmed by NDEs.

See his summary at around 56 minutes ...

Well the historical record of NDEs is pretty broad, sometimes confirming certain beliefs and at other times introducing new beliefs into a culture.

If you take a biased sample of Survival cases you can probably confirm several religious beliefs, but taken in their totality you are left with something more mysterious and strange.

But I think the first step is getting people to look at Survival data in some way. I get that it's always a bit disturbing to see people use NDEs in what seems like a dishonest way - like that weird cult that was infiltrating NDE organizations - but once Survival is a scienitific question there's at least a path to getting people to look at the larger body of literature.

Imagine if there were academic debates on what the Survival literature says about the afterlife rather than the tiresome atheist versus religious stuff we've seen...
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'

- Bertrand Russell


[-] The following 2 users Like Sciborg_S_Patel's post:
  • Obiwan, Larry
I think regardless of the religious agenda, I'm happy that this is being brought to mainstream audiences. And I'm also happy Christians can be an ally in the NDE research (including myself who's getting into Christianity) just because from this book I read on NDEs from a Christian author, it talks about how both Christians and atheists thought NDEs were basically bullshit for many decades. Basically in the 80s if you reported an NDE, the priest you talked to would call it demons and slam a door in your face, and your materialist doctor would call it hallucinations and also slam a door in your face. My own parents are Christian and think NDEs are just fake hallucinations.

Also very telling that this movie is being bombed with bad reviews by critics calling NDEs lies and hallucinations, and a bad rotten tomatoes critic review yet the audience score is very high. Sounds like mainstream media doesn't want us to think a certain way when it comes to life after death.
(This post was last modified: 2023-11-10, 11:21 PM by LotusFlower. Edited 1 time in total.)
[-] The following 3 users Like LotusFlower's post:
  • David001, Larry, Sciborg_S_Patel
(2023-11-10, 11:21 PM)LotusFlower Wrote: Also very telling that this movie is being bombed with bad reviews by critics calling NDEs lies and hallucinations, and a bad rotten tomatoes critic review yet the audience score is very high. Sounds like mainstream media doesn't want us to think a certain way when it comes to life after death.

And that again is why I am making the point. I would suggest that the reviews would not be quite so harsh if there wasn't an evangelical gloss to the documentary evidence. Audience attendance doesn't impress me either - Trump rallies get big crowds too.

Just out of interest, I checked the Rotten Tomatoes score for the Netflix documentary series, Surviving Death: 80%. Not bad for the mainstream.
I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension.
Freeman Dyson
(This post was last modified: 2023-11-11, 12:39 AM by Kamarling. Edited 4 times in total.)
[-] The following 2 users Like Kamarling's post:
  • Obiwan, Ninshub
(2023-11-11, 12:30 AM)Kamarling Wrote: And that again is why I am making the point. I would suggest that the reviews would not be quite so harsh if there wasn't an evangelical gloss to the documentary evidence. Audience attendance doesn't impress me either - Trump rallies get big crowds too.

Just out of interest, I checked the Rotten Tomatoes score for the Netflix documentary series, Surviving Death: 80%. Not bad for the mainstream.

I heard a lot of people really liked the first two episodes of surviving death but then started disliking the other ones because it apparantly got too iffy

  • View a Printable Version
Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)